Examining how superconductivity levitation works.
The UCD Science Promotion Committee organised two UCD Science Summer events - the one day 8 June Science Summer School and a half day as part of the UCD New ERA Summer School on 9 June.
Students from 11 counties and 50 schools nationwide took part in a one day UCD Science Summer School designed to allow students experience a typical day in the life of an undergraduate student.
Some of the activities during the Physics practical with Dr James Rice and Dr Tom McCormack in the UCD School of Physicsincluded measuring the width of hair and examining superconductivity with Mr Thomas O'Reilly.
The Biology, Chemistry and Biomedical/Biomolecular practicals were held in the undergraduate labs in the UCD Conway Institute.
The Biology practical from the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science showed how important herbivory is in regulating plant growth. Dr Jan-Robert Baars explained how various native insects consume plants and how we use this to control exotic plants.
The UCD School of Biomedical and Biomolecular Science ran a series of demonstrations including visualizing DNA both inside and outside the nucleus of cells, measuring blood glucose levels and the effect of sugar intake and measuring protein levels and a mini practical to identify and visualize bacteria which are associated with human disease. Students also observed the effect that pharmaceutical drugs had on different organs of the body including the heart and the intestine as well as measuring the speed at which nerve signals travel and how our reflexes work.
Dr Andrew Phillips from the UCD School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology designed a chemistry practical with a green theme - generating energy from fruit.
The students from the morning and afternoon Chemistry practical who generated the most energy from their cells won prizes.
Dr Michael O'Neill and his team in the UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics took the students through a series of programming challenges in the new interactive learning lab. For anyone interested in trying these at home, you can download the program called SCRATCH from the MIT website at http://scratch.mit.edu/
The first mini lecture was delivered by Professor Brendan Murphy from the UCD School of Mathematical Sciences on the theme of social networking. Professor Murphy introduced students to graph theory and its relevance to social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
The second lecture by Professor John Walsh from the UCD School of Geological Sciences was a fascinating introduction to Geology. Professor Walsh took the audience on a journey through geological time and around the world to examine volcanoes and earthquake fault lines.
26 students joined Dr Keith Murphy from the UCD School of Biomedical and Biomolecular Science for an introduction to pharmacology in the undergraduate labs in the UCD Conway Institute. Dr Murphy outlined the role of pharmacologists in understanding epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease and this sparked a lively discussion after where students asked a series of questions on dyslexia, dementia and attention deficiency disorder.
Then Dr Tadhg Ó’Cróinín set the students a challenge to distinguish between different bacteria in a medical microbiology lab. Bacteria were identified by Gram staining combined with testing for the presence of enzymes such as catalase and cytochrome C oxidase. Students were also shown agar plates which contained a variety of different organisms ranging from strains of yeast which are used in the brewing industry to fungi which are used to produce antibiotics such as penicillin.
After finishing the medical practical students made their way to the UCD School of Physics where they met Dr John Quinn to examine a 1:4 scale model of XMM-Newton, an ESA earth orbiting satellite observatory, donated to University College Dublin by the European Space Agency (ESA). You can read more about the UCD ESA connection at http://www.ucd.ie/news/2010/10OCT10/011010-ESA-space-satellite-results-examined-at-UCD-hosted-conference.html
Dr Quinn then took the students on a tour of space and showed images from the Hubble space telescope and explained how astrophysicists are seaching for extra-solar planets using the Kepplar satellite.
Related links:
